Untether your Team

Technology is re-defining how, when, and where you work—as well as what you use to get that work done.

06.24.2014

Microsoft Enterprise Team

Two years ago, mobile productivity meant carrying a single mobile device and relying on it to handle all personal and professional details.

Today, going mobile is synonymous with a person having instant access to all of their information on whatever device they prefer. Some people carry one smartphone; others carry two plus a tablet. And some are selecting the smaller phablets, relying on only one device to handle all of their data. More than two thirds of consumers use mobile devices to get information about products, brands, or destinations at least 3-4 days each week; we look up facts on our smartphones, watch the latest programming by streaming data to tablets. Truly modern mobility is about seamless access, where settings, data, and applications follow the user from any number of devices.

The next wave of enterprise productivity is here, and it’s all about enabling these fluid, seamless mobile experiences for users.

So what does this mean for the enterprise workplace? It’s about agility. For many organizations, mobile investments enable the ability for their people to be more reachable in more locations. People can collaborate from anywhere and at any time—which, in turn, speeds decision making. The real impact can be felt with the customer: this boost in productivity allows companies to respond to customers with a profound kind of agility, especially in the world of midnight product reviews posted online. This agility speeds improvement of products and services while simultaneously building a more satisfied, loyal customer base. Most importantly: if customers are unhappy and a customer issue transforms into a corporate blight, mobile productivity allows fast response and damage control. From every perspective, this kind of productivity redefines how people work as employees and what they expect from businesses as customers.

The challenge for business and IT leaders is to develop and implement an enterprise-wide mobile strategy together that embraces the opportunity to forge deeper, richer connections with both employees and customers while maintaining enterprise-grade security and availability. It’s imperative to choose a complete set of devices and services that are architected for the always-on mobile world.

Our mobility platform provides two key opportunities for the enterprise: empowering your workforce to be more productive while engaging your customers.

Boost anywhere, always-on productivity

In today’s work environment, it’s nearly impossible to underestimate the value of providing all employees—from executive to salesperson—with anytime-anywhere connectivity to the business. This access becomes critical for streamlining workflows, then reducing the time it takes to deliver customer service. Business users can access their information whenever they need it—even from personally owned devices—without compromising security. By providing familiar, connected experiences on those devices, reducing learning time, and helping users to stay productive on the go, companies can truly transform their enterprise.

Our office and collaborative tools work just like the business and social apps your colleagues already know, and those applications work on the devices people choose-including iOS and Android devices. Many companies are enabling specialized or in-the-field workflows for mobile workers with a mobile line-of-business (LOB) app. These are both mobile apps already available for an existing line-of-business solution, or custom-built apps that enable developers to deliver the best experience across the PC, tablet, and smartphone.

Invite customers with intelligent, contextual mobile experiences

The opportunity to empower your employees with productivity is directly proportional to the opportunity to delight your customers. Providing an immersive, connected mobile experience interests and engages your customers wherever they are. Some organizations have developed Windows 8 apps that tap into information about customer context (such as real-time location) and integrates with their other apps and data (such as their contacts and social network memberships). While embracing a growing, global, always-on mobile community, the cloud can deliver cross-device content to global users while easily scaling to meet demand. Combining the cloud platform with search allows delivery of profound, context-aware and content-rich apps; setting performance policies guides users to the best instance for their device and bandwidth while streamlining development, enabling focus on the user experience.

For both businesses and consumers, mobile has become the “new normal.” The inevitable consequence is a blurring of the line between work and personal, as people are online and available to all parts of their lives at all times. Whether your organization wants to support an untethered workstyle or to find new ways to engage with customers, one thing is becoming clear: embracing mobile productivity is critical to stay competitive.